An hour before the dawn, the snake came. It was big, and it wasn't really completely a snake, since it had a man's face. It was tan, and huge, at least six spans long. Fred thought that the face meant it was intelligent, but as it carefully slithered down the open pit to the tree, he got the feeling it wasn't so much smart as it was mean and clever. "Oh well, I don't suppose angels would come live here", Fred thought.

The snake coiled around the silver tree, and turned yellow. Fred knew the next step; he looked into the smallest round room he'd made here, and imagined the snake in residence. He saw sand. A hot, desert room filled with stone ruins. "I guess snakes like it hot? And the ruins let the snake move around, and hide from archers?" He also saw that the room would have to be bigger, so he gamely got to work extending it outward, away from the central tree room. The snake, curious and alert, came and watched the room changing. Right after he'd gotten the room the right size, Jim spoke up.

Good morning, Fred. My goodness, a Desert Naga! I'm not sure I've ever seen one!

"Is that what it is? I know it wants hot sand, so I've gotta make some."

And what is this tree!? Fred, did you make this?

"Yeah, after I made the central shaft, the tree was at the top, and it just fell in." Fred wanted to brag, but also didn't want to lie to Jim. "I had an inspiration, and planted the tree. Then I thought the tree wasn't big enough, so I wanted something more down here. That's when I thought of those stones."

Which are clearly magical. It's beautiful! You've done something quite artistic here, Fred.

"I don't know if a ring of stones is art."

Oh, it is! It's lovely. And the stones have altered the tree. It's silver! Do you know what the tree does now?

"No, what?"

No, I'm asking you. I don't know anything about it. Like I said before, Aeru has been magical for so long, no one can conceive of all the different types of magic that have been created in this world.

"Well, it hasn't done anything so far. It's just a silver tree, as far as I know."

Okay. Well, it's amazing. You should be proud of your work here.

"Thank you. Hey, can I change the subject? I've seen a couple of the original villagers around here, and I don't think they're being treated well by the professional warriors who've taken over. Do you know anything about that?"

No. It's very believable, though. Humans are often cruel and thoughtless, especially to themselves.

"And Aeru is okay with that?"

What do you mean?

"Well, Aeru's had millions of years, right? How come she didn't kick out the humans and make a better race of people? Nice people, who don't get sick, or turn evil, or crap on the floor? Are humans really the best she can do?"

Jim took a few minutes to reply. Fred worried that he'd offended Jim. Or Aeru.

It's hard to explain. Aeru isn't really in the business of deciding who gets to live on her. And for all their faults, humans are survivors, adapters, innovators. Even if she wanted to, it'd be very hard to remove every human. Most importantly, humans can be good tools. Aeru can use humans to fight evil and protect things. And this is very important right now.

"Okay. Wait, no, it's important that she uses humans as tools right now?"

I meant what I've said before. Aeru wants you to help the humans get stronger, so they can defend their homes and nations.

"From what?"

That's a very good question, Fred. I can't give you an exact answer, but I'm sure you've wondered why Aeru made you into an Earth Spirit right now?

Fred hadn't thought about that at all.

Aeru is under a great threat right now. The sort of threat that only comes up every million years or so.

"Is it demons? Oh, I know, another planet is on a collision course, right?"

It's demons. No collision.

"Oh."

Demons from another dimension are invading. The humans need to beat them back and close their doorway into Aeru. They can only do that if they're strong. And you are here to make them strong.

"Like, big red demons? With horns and tails? And pitchforks?"

Well, they have many different weapons. The demon horde is legion. But yes, they are red, with horns and tails. I'd ask how you knew that, but apparently the demon scourge is so common across the universe, that everyone knows of them.

"Well, so if everyone knows them, then they've fought them and won before. So humans can beat them again, right?"

I won't lie to you, Fred. The threat is real, and terrible. That's why everyone must do their part. I'm counting on you.

"Okay. I'm down for fighting demons. I mean, who wouldn't be, right?"

There are always those who see it differently.

"Hey, what about that greasy guy I squashed? Was he a demon?"

Probably not, since he died so easily. Plus, Demons are shockingly toxic when they die. You'd know if you'd killed one. He was probably from a demon cult, though. Demons like to use humans as their willing or unwilling servants.

"Using humans as tools? Who would want to do that?" Fred thought to himself. He didn't speak those thoughts, though.

Anyway, I'm very happy with your progress, Fred. Keep at it, okay?

"Yes. I know what to do, now."

We'll speak this evening. Bye.

"Bye."

Fred looked around. The snake hadn't moved, and didn't seem bored. Up above, Fred saw that the humans were back, fighting the beasts and collecting loot as usual. All seemed fine. So he went back to work in the naga's lair.

Making sand was easy. He just had to think about turning rock into sand, and it was so. He transmuted the rock from the ceiling, so the new sand simply fell down to the floor, and collected in drifts. Then he decided to make the ruined walls and buildings. It was easy to make them from stone blocks. They kinda felt like playing with blocks as a kid, stacking them into interesting shapes. It was trouble to move aside the sand before placing the lowest blocks. Fred realized he should have made the ruins before the sand. Too late now, he shrugged to himself.

After a few more ruin stacks, Fred looked back at the snake, who was still very much yellow. Bemused, Fred imagined the room again. This time things were a little different. For one thing, the room needed a small, round anteroom, presumably as the naga's bedroom. That wasn't hard to do. The room also needed an oasis; a small pool of clean water. Fred had no idea how he was gonna provide that. Finally, the room was expected to have stars overhead.

Fred did the anteroom first, because it was so simple. Then he worked on the stars. He didn't actually want the roof to be off the room (and he didn't think the naga did either), so he remembered how he'd lit up the ramp. Instead of making the whole wall and ceiling glow, he focused on making glowing spots on the ceiling of the naga lair. It worked, and over the next few minutes he made hundreds of glowing spots on the ceiling, til the room was lit with a noticeable twilight. Fred thought it was lovely.

He looked back to the naga. It was moving. It slid through the sand, curling around the stone formations Fred had made, until it arrived in the bedroom. There it curled up and seemed to be comfortable, though it was still yellow. "It's not gonna be happy without that pond water," Fred thought. "And I still haven't made it hot in here. Two things to ask Jim about."

Fred decided to step back and survey his domain. It was still morning, and the humans were busy battling on the first floor. Outside the main entrance, it seemed like there were more humans than ever, some standing in lines, others bossing them around. Fred knew his domain had become popular. He checked in with his beasts, who all seemed to be happy with the situation (several were "dead", but would come back in minutes). He looked into the room full of potatoes. It was overgrown and wild. Clearly no one had come to harvest any of them. "I guess the professionals don't need my potatoes," Fred mused.

He checked in with Shelley, and everything seemed okay with her family. The kid was still in there. Right now he was awake (Fred assumed the kid was male, kinda hard to tell), and playing with a couple of the younger, scampier groundhogs. The kid was just as dirty and thin as before, and Fred's heart ached for him. Then he had an idea. He'd made the potato room specifically to feed people, and it was going to waste, so it was time for a change.

Fred made another room, upslope of Shelley's den and next to it. He connected the two rooms with another Shelley/kid sized tunnel, then made another similar tunnel to the outside. This was a longer tunnel, meant to come out a long way upslope of the main entrance. When that was done, he tried to make the exit as invisible as possible, so it wouldn't be seen by the growing population of the humans near the exit.

Then he went to the potato room, and relocated all the potatoes to the new room. Finally, he made the new room glow, so the kid could see what they were doing. And it was clear that the kid was attracted to the light. Fred watched as the kid wiggled down the connection and into the potato room. The kid immediately grabbed potatoes and stuffed them into his mouth as fast as he could chew. Fred hoped the kid would take the potatoes home to his family and lead the villagers back to the new potato room. He didn't know what else he could do for him. He just hoped for the best.